Rep. Mia Love was a rising star two years ago when she became the first black Republican woman ever elected to Congress — as well as a symbol of the more diverse, inclusive party that GOP leaders said they needed to build.

But now, the prospect of Donald Trump leading the Republican ticket has Utah Democrats hopeful they can reclaim Love’s conservative House seat in November. And the local GOP is already working on a secret plan to keep its voters motivated even if Trump, whom GOP activists decisively rejected at Tuesday’s caucuses, is the presidential nominee in November.

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“We're calling it Plan T,” said James Evans, the GOP state party chairman. The party is preparing for a statewide get-out-the-vote effort to remind Republicans who don’t want to back Trump that the presidential race isn’t the only contest on the ballot.

Utah is typically inhospitable territory for Democrats, but it’s plenty bad for Trump, too: On Tuesday, he won only 14 percent of the GOP vote in the state, his worst showing in the 30 states that have held primaries and caucuses so far. He did just as badly in Salt Lake County, which is home to most of the voters in Love’s 4th District.

Utah Republicans know they might have a problem. After Trump carried eight states on Super Tuesday, state Republican bigwigs began crafting a plan to protect other GOP officeholders from anti-Trump backlash.

“If we’re not unified, it will take a little more work, but we’ll still win,” Evans said, adding that he had no doubt Love would win reelection.

Love is an asset worth protecting for the Republican Party, both in Utah and nationally. The GOP tapped her for a coveted speaking slot at its 2012 convention, during her first run for Congress, and her story — Love’s parents emigrated from Haiti the year before she was born, 40 years before she was elected to the House — stands out in a House Republican conference that is more than 90 percent white.

Democrats, meanwhile, are convinced that Trump can’t help but aid Doug Owens, the son of a former congressman who is running against Love for a second time this year. Sen. John McCain won the district by a wide margin in 2008, and Mitt Romney did even better in 2012, winning more than two-thirds of the vote. But Romney denounced Trump in a speech at the University of Utah earlier this month, and Democrats are hoping that Republicans who can't stomach voting for Trump will stay home or even back Democratic candidates if he's on the ballot.

A Deseret News survey released before the caucuses found Hillary Clinton about even with Trump in a general election matchup — within striking distance of becoming the first Democrat to carry Utah since 1964.

"I think having Trump at the top of the ticket has got to help Democrats in Utah," said Clare Collard, chairwoman of the Salt Lake County Democratic Party.

Owens has already proved to be an unusually strong candidate for the area. He lost to Love by just more than 4,000 votes in 2014, picking up a significant number of crossover votes, even though many Democrats had written off the conservative district after longtime Rep. Jim Matheson retired.

"There's a lot of crossover for the right kind of Democrat," said Taylor Morgan, an Owens campaign spokesman who's a registered Republican himself. "Doug Owens is very much in that Jim Matheson mold."

Love’s campaign insists the prospect of a Trump ticket isn’t cause for worry. "It doesn't matter who's at the top of the ticket," said Boyd Matheson, a Love spokesman. "Mia Love will win."

But Love, like a handful of other Republicans facing tight races this year, has already moved to distance herself from the Republican front-runner.

While she hasn’t openly disavowed Trump, like GOP Reps. Bob Dold and Carlos Curbelo, Love did make it clear that she wasn’t voting for him in her local election.

“Because I believe we need a president with less bravado and more real courage to act on conservative principles, I will be casting my vote Tuesday for Ted Cruz,” Love said in a statement ahead of the caucuses. “He has proven himself to be a principled, courageous leader with a positive agenda for our future.”

Some Republicans elsewhere believe that Trump would boost turnout for local races, not hamper it, as the party’s presidential candidate. Just across Utah’s southern border, Arizona GOP House candidate David Gowan’s campaign has been encouraged by Trump’s performance in the presidential race. Gowan, the state House speaker, is running for a largely rural seat that Republicans have tried and failed to capture from Democrats for several elections now.

Melissa DeLaney, a Gowan spokeswoman, wrote in an email that "Trump as the nominee will make [the district] more likely to go Republican.” While Trump was getting crushed in Utah earlier this week, he won the Arizona primary handily. “Having Trump on the ballot has shown to increase turnout in rural areas and amongst more blue-collar voters — even attracting Democrats," DeLaney wrote.

Trump’s singular unpopularity among Utah Republicans has the state party there thinking on opposite terms, though. “If we have to drag our voters to the polls — we’re good at that,” said Evans, the state GOP chair.